The “genius” musician who could do everything, according to Tom Petty
To paraphrase a famous Batman villain, it is one thing to be moulded by the rebellion of rock music and another thing to be born into it. Throughout his career, Tom Petty could have rightfully claimed to have been a child of rock and roll.
From the moment he heard Elvis Presley for the first time, the heartland rocker knew what he wanted to do with his life, thinking there was more to the music than strictly a solid beat and a handful of chords. Though Petty would become a living legend soon after assembling the Heartbreakers, he considered one of his contemporaries was as close to a musical genius as it gets.
“Genius” is a term most often attributed to the biggest and brightest names in the industry. Artists like Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan are often considered geniuses because of their contributions to music as a whole. Likewise, powerhouses like Nina Simone can be considered geniuses because of their skill. But very rarely does someone get the word attributed to them while remaining in the comparative shadows.
After his humble upbringing in Gainsville, Florida, Petty was known for surrounding himself with people who excelled in their craft. Before he had a formal contract with his band, Petty was already heralded for his songwriting skills, even having the chance to stay at Leon Russell’s house as a resident songwriter.
By the time he found the rest of his band on the circuit, though, Petty knew he had something more than just typical rock and roll. Painting mythical stories about what he saw in America, tracks like ‘American Girl’ and ‘Breakdown’ would usher in a new era for rock and roll, with Petty becoming much more enamoured with his idols from the 1960s than the punk movement happening at the same time.
After various headaches trying to get albums like Damn the Torpedoes off the ground, though, Petty had started to finetune his craft as a storyteller as well. Throughout projects like Hard Promises and Southern Accents, Petty was looking to create textures with his music that fell in line with his narratives, infamously breaking his hand when he couldn’t get the song ‘Rebels’ to sound how he heard it in his head.
When Petty finally had the opportunity to work outside his primary outfit, though, he would luck into the chance of a lifetime by working alongside the Traveling Wilburys. While it’s probably never a bad thing getting to see artists like George Harrison and Bob Dylan write songs, Petty was taken with the production stylings of Jeff Lynne.
Working with him on his solo debut, Full Moon Fever, Petty would say that Lynne was a league above everyone else in rock music. Speaking with Paul Zollo, Petty talked about how easy it was working with Lynne, saying, “Jeff was such a genius in the studio. Just so good. He made things that had been really difficult seem so easy all of a sudden. Like getting a good take. It just all came so easy with him. He taught me a lot. A lot about singing, a lot about harmony, a lot about arranging. Everything”.
Having a writing partner for the first time, Petty and Lynne would often finish off songs together within a few hours, with Petty famously making up ‘Free Fallin’ in an attempt to make Lynne laugh. While Full Moon Fever marked a career-high for Petty at the time, it wouldn’t be the last time that Lynne worked with the heartland rocker.
Petty’s friendship with Lynne would lead to him producing the next Heartbreakers record, Into the Great Wide Open, only to be rekindled later when he worked on the album Highway Companion in 2007. The Heartbreakers may have been Petty’s musical soulmates throughout his life, but his work with Jeff Lynne took his career from heartland rocker to classic rock legend overnight.
